Renewable power developer Lucid Energy has received funds from an Israeli crowd-funding to expand its in-conduit hydro turbine operation to foreign shores, HydroWorld.com has learned.

The Portland-based company is being backed by OurCrowd, which is an Israeli investment cooperative that matches financers with early-stage companies seeking venture capital. Lucid said it is the first American company to receive such support.

"We are thrilled to be working with OurCrowd," said Lucid Energy CEO Gregg Semler. "The speed and efficiency of the OurCrowd platform -- which has brought entrepreneurial investors to us from as far away as Israel, New York, Brazil and Australia -- is amazing."

Lucid Energy's "LucidPipe" generating units use existing large-diameter pipeline to generate the water flow required to turn their turbines, meaning they can be installed in municipal, agricultural and industrial systems. Their versatility and relative low cost made them attractive to OurCrowdfounder Jonathan Medved.

"In Israel, we are passionate about clean water and renewable energy technologies," Medved said. "Water is our most critical resource, and as a result, we have become a global leader in smart water by necessity."

"When we saw considerable interest in the LucidPipe technology from a major Israeli water agency, we realized that Lucid Energy is a game-changer for water agencies who constitute one of the world's largest consumers of energy," Medved said.